I have it on good authority (the folks on the PfP thread) that the liberal bias of the papers is the cause of declining readership.<g>
You might wish to check this story.
I know, I know, its USA Today. Still, read the content.
usatoday.com
Most of the media scandals in the last few years have involved newspapers and broadcasters that, rightly or wrongly, are associated with liberal politics. Dan Rather, Jayson Blair, the snippy and rude Gregory fellow, Helen Thomas, et al, are not Fox alumni.
The Inquisition sought to be initiated after Cheney's hunting accident was disgraceful, and it was wholly a creature of the mainstream media. Did you notice how quickly that story died? I suspect the polls suggested that the people were not interested in that kind of trash, and the white hot focus on it ended as quickly as it started.
Contrast the findings reported by USA Today in the link set forth above with the findings two years later by, ahem, ABC News. While one would think that trust in the media might have gone down during that period, according to ABC it went up.
abcnews.go.com
The findings made by CBS appear to be even more favorable to the media than those made by ABC.
cbsnews.com
If you believe mass media, they're doing great. Trust is fine, no problems.
Why, then, do they keep losing money? Why do consumers of information increasingly go somewhere else? Is it simply the prevalence of greater choices or the fact that consumers don't care for or trust what they get from established sources?
I don't know, but I am certain that a substantial amount of the financial difficulties faced by the media are due to a lack of trust in what is being delivered.
And there are lots of examples of liberal bias in the media. Here's one written today:
media.nationalreview.com
And if that example doesn't convince you, here's a deconstruction of the NYT's article on Weinberger's death:
timeswatch.org
Things like this are noticed, digested, and disliked by many readers. Is there any wonder that the mainstream media is losing tons and tons of money?
You may not care for PfP, but I think it is onto something quite real. |
